That ESPN article I linked made it clear that at this point options were limited, with Utah, Oregon State, and Colorado the most likely Pac-12 opponents. So… like, okay. It's a reasonable opponent, or at least should be reasonable in a couple years.

Still, it's a little unsatisfying. Michigan got one-off games with the Utes twice in the past decade; now they're giving them a full home and home. Yeah, they're in the Pac-12 but Colorado sucked it up to play a one-off with OSU last year. Meanwhile, non-Pac-12 nonconference options will be extremely limited starting in 2017. It would have been nice to get a series in with someone from another conference. Meh.

If it's the first game of the season, I'm OK with Thursday night. It won't mean a short turnaround from playing the Saturday before. Lots of time to work on whoever we play in the second game of the year.

I've never seen Michigan play on any day but Saturday (bowls excluded)

Only time I remember is the Buffalo Stampede game. Moved because the Twins had a possible home playoff game scheduled for that Saturday, but (IIRC) they were eliminated by the time the game was played.

When the Twins were in the playoffs. I also think that was the last time a Michigan game wasn't on tv, because I remember listening to it on the radio. (I think it was a night Gophers game...Friday makes sense).

If I said "Alcohol is only for adults" and you said "No it ain't, my kids drink it all the time" you haven't really disproved my point.

Maybe my wording was difficult to follow. I don't mean Thursday night games are "reserved" for teams without cache, I mean they are "meant" for teams without cache. I get why USC and Oregon do it, so that non-West Coasters can watch their games. I get why ACC teams do it, because a lot of their games don't make it outside of the states playing in the games.

I'll take a home-and-home with a mediocre team over back-to-back cupcakes at home. Obviously I'd prefer a USC or Oregon, but at this point it beats most of our non-conference opponents over the past couple of years. Remember that when we played Oregon, it was before they were considered a good team (argh Dennis Dixon!). Maybe Utah can be top-25 by that point (big maybe).

I also agree it might be cool to be the first game of the season-- it would make the wait from the first game until the Michigan game...nonexistent.

Too bad the "away" half of the series isn't one of those strange mid- to late-season out of conference games. Alta usually opens up pretty early and the skiing would make a trip out for a Thursday game worthwhile.

...opened up the possibility of a Jazz game during that weekend to round out the trip to Salt Lake City. In any case, I look forward to making my first trip there, and expect to take a group of Michigan fans with me.

Given the limited choices, I guess this will have to do. I like Colorado better due to the history in the mid-90's (I saw all three games), but Utah will most likely be the better opponent on the field.

So what time witll the Thursday game start? If they adjust it to EST and the game starts at 7 eastern, then I'll still be at work (!) when Michigan starts playing. If it starts at 7 local time, then that would be 9pm for you Easton time folks, meaning the game will end a half hour or so after midnight. When the game is on Saturday, none of this is an issue.

California has "daily overtime." You get overtime if you work more than 8 hours in a day, instead of more than 40 hours in a week. Employers who would be happy to allow you flexibility in setting your schedule don't want to pay you OT so that you can stay up late on Thursday and have a short Friday.

How dare you leave my native Illinois out of this? No way my man. The ATRA disagrees if you look at the last 10 years of "judicial hellholes." We have Cook County and Madison County, with St. Clair County making a strong push of late to join the fray as a plaintiff's haven. http://www.judicialhellholes.org/\

Also, someone is negging all of these anti-Thursday-night posts, and while I don't want to start a flame war, I do think that that person is a part of a Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

This may be standard practice for other events, but it's not for Michigan football.

I don't know what you do for a living, and you don't know what I do. But I can't just show up early and leave early. I might work until 8 or 9pm local time, and I might not know about it more than a few days in advance, if that. And when I need to, my boss and my clients don't really care that my college is playing a football game. I rarely get to watch MNF or other sports on during the week, which is why college football is great because luckily my clients don't work weekends, so I don't work weekends.

So although you probably don't give a fuck if I miss the first half (which is evident), I actually care. Especially if it's the first game of the year.